The only time I've ever denied a picture was when I was waiting for my friend to show up in front of the con, and I had my Len cosplay on but not the wig. I felt so terrible saying no and wished that I let her get one. But I wasn't ready at all.

I don't understand why anybody would refuse a photo. If you're eating, it takes all of five seconds to put your food down, stand up, pose, and then it's over. I would feel less awkward having a picture with my cheeks full of food or holding a bottle of water or having my friend behind me trying to safety pin something then trying to think of a way to tell somebody "No, you can't take my picture".
I mean, there's really no reason why you can't. If you're not the way dressed or have a wardrobe malfunction, but the person still wanting your picture thinks you look okay enough to take five seconds to get a picture, why not just give them five seconds and let them take the picture?
To me it seems more of a hassle not to just let them take it and giving them a reason why they can't.

I don't understand why anybody would refuse a photo. If you're eating, it takes all of five seconds to put your food down, stand up, pose, and then it's over. I would feel less awkward having a picture with my cheeks full of food or holding a bottle of water or having my friend behind me trying to safety pin something then trying to think of a way to tell somebody "No, you can't take my picture".
I mean, there's really no reason why you can't. If you're not the way dressed or have a wardrobe malfunction, but the person still wanting your picture thinks you look okay enough to take five seconds to get a picture, why not just give them five seconds and let them take the picture?
To me it seems more of a hassle not to just let them take it and giving them a reason why they can't.

Well, I view eating as more of a me time. Like, I'm trying to relax and enjoy myself at that moment and not worry about pictures. Also, with most of my cosplays now, I have to do the whole cover myself with napkins thing to avoid getting anything on my cosplay so I am definetly not going to get up for five seconds(plus getting up is usually a hassle as well). As for wardrobe malfunctions, I think it is more of how the cosplayer feels about it. More than likely the pictures will end up on the internet so the cosplayer wants to look their best.

I know in my case...if I'm having a panic attack, I do not want anyone taking my picture for any reason.

If I'm eating...I'd much rather have someone wait for me to have my meal, unless they're leaving and won't have the chance to get another photo some other time.

I've yet to really have any wardrobe malfunctions but....

I think the general rule needs to be...have a little courtesy for the person behind the character. We're all human...we all have times we do and don't have the patience or desire to deal with some things and whether you can respect that or not, at least try to respect the person cosplaying.

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"People do not care. If you cannot keep up, you will lose everything."“It’s not how tragically we suffer, but how miraculously we live.”“This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.”~Tea is wisdom, just add water~

I wish I knew how to say no. At AM2 a lot of people asked for my picture as Link but I was really tired and sweaty and wanted to sit down...Did it anyway. Then at AX I was burning up and in the middle of having a really bad panic attack and someone asked for my picture. I did this really sloppy pose and yeah... I felt really bad because I took off running for the bathroom afterwards and I probably looked angry :/

But personally, for saying no in other circumstances like eating, since I'm generally a weird and lenient person, I don't care if someone takes a picture of me while I'm eating. My face is weird enough, so having food in my mouth doesn't make a difference. If that's the kind of picture they want then, okie dokie xD

I haven't been to that many cons, so I get excited when someone asks for my photo. I mean I get turning down a picture cause of eating and bathroom and scheduling and all that. People need space and sometimes you can only get that while eating! I think some people don't think about the cosplayer and think only about the cosplay. It's not fair.

So all in all, saying no to photos is a right every cosplayer should have.

I've only declined a photo once. My brother was fixing his swords (he was doing Date and I was Yukimura). And someone came up and asked for a picture and I was like, "oh, i'm sorry. he's fixing his swords. Is it okay if you come back later?" And he just smiles and is like "okay, don't worry. I'll find you later." He was understandable about it which was nice. I didn't want to keep him waiting since fixing might take a while and I know they have things to do.

Hmm, it's interesting to see that some of you say no to a photo when you were eating. I usually put my food down on the table and pose for the person when I'm asked for a photo while eating. So far I haven't declined any pictures to be taken of me but I was declined a couple of times. Both of them were when the cosplayers were late to a panel and were in a hurry.

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"Times will bring that up over and over again. It's like I'm dying from my mental hemophilia..."
"Forgetting the past is easier said than done. You know it dies hard, and when it dies, it dies with you."

"This world is hell, we were born into hell. That doesn't change the fact that I can find ways to enjoy it."
"It's simply a matter of choice - this world sucks to you because you choose it to be so to you."

I will always say no while I'm eating. I've had to say no a couple times when I had my Madoka cosplay on and I was running down to get my roommate and I some breakfast and also when I was running to a photoshoot.

I probably should have said no a lot more times in the past because there are pictures where you can just tell that I am tired/busy/hungry but stopped anyway to be polite.

But when I do refuse pictures I will often say, "but I'll be back later!" or in the case of Madoka "I'll be back with my Homura, so you can take a picture of both of us!"

I've only said no once (then again I've only been cosplaying for about a year) and that was when I was in the middle of buying all of me and my friend's passes. I posed for the photo a few minutes afterwards when I was done so it was all good. I'm okay with doing fan service shots but if I were asked to do something a little too extreme I'd probably say no, just have personal standards is all.

I don't understand why anybody would refuse a photo. If you're eating, it takes all of five seconds to put your food down, stand up, pose, and then it's over. I would feel less awkward having a picture with my cheeks full of food or holding a bottle of water or having my friend behind me trying to safety pin something then trying to think of a way to tell somebody "No, you can't take my picture".
I mean, there's really no reason why you can't. If you're not the way dressed or have a wardrobe malfunction, but the person still wanting your picture thinks you look okay enough to take five seconds to get a picture, why not just give them five seconds and let them take the picture?
To me it seems more of a hassle not to just let them take it and giving them a reason why they can't.

I'm going to have to disagree with you on this. While it might not seem like a big deal to the person behind the camera since they just take the picture and leave, it can get a little overwhelming to someone who gets asked for photos multiple times in a short amount of time throughout the day.

When I first debuted one of my cosplays, it was pretty popular. I had people asking me for photos one after the other, which was fine. It wasn't until a few hours later when I finally sat my tired self down to eat and detox from the crowd. Then someone came up while I was in the middle of eating and asked for a photo. I didn't really want to because I was tired, but it was five seconds right?

Next thing I know there's three more photographers starting to take pictures because they saw I was standing up and posing. My feet were killing me and all I could think about was my food getting colder and colder and I just wanted a few minutes to myself. What most pictures they got was of me looking lackluster and miserable. Since then I've learned to tell people no while I'm eating and for most part they are pretty understanding. I just say "I'm sorry I'm eating right, but you can take a picture later if you like?" Short, sweet, to the point and no one can't fault you for saying it.

i'm not seeing the problem in saying no to a photo, remember cosplayers are people too, sometimes they just need a moment to themselves i know i do and sitting down to eat is better than just returning to my room

I very rarely say no to a photo because people expect you to want your photo taken if you're in costume.

But my reasons for declining echo jukebox's reasons.
-- I've declined because I was running from my room to a masquerade and was only partially in costume...

-- Declined because I was in a hurry trying to make a panel. In this case, I usually say that they can come with me if they want to try to get a photo, but that I can't stop.

-- requested we move out of the way so as not to block a dealers room area.

-- photographer is a creeper and is requesting inappropriate photos

In several cases I've had people be mad that I wouldn't stop to let them take a photo when I was in a rush, but often when you stop to take a photo, if you are in a flashy costume, then a group forms and you aren't able to leave quickly.

If I'm not in full costume, I don't want random ugly photos of me in a wigcap holding all my costume parts on the internet... unless it's a friend taking the photo, I don't like it.

Another example was when we went dressed as the Sleeping Beauty Goodfairies and Aurora to the Atlanta aquarium. We knew we would be asked to take photos since we were dressed up, but we paid to go to the aquarium and we were going to look at fish and take our own photos. The crowds got very demanding asking us to take photos so much and we couldn't even enjoy watching the fish very much at all. We would pose for photos often, but sometimes we would say no.